stayed green. The running order after lap 1
was Keijzer, Davidson, Fairhurst, Harris
and Castell. On lap 2 Harris moved past
Fairhurst and set about catching Davidson.
By lap 5 Harris had caught and passed
Davidson to move up into second place
and start his chase after Keijzer. Fairhurst
was down in 5th place behind Castell and
Danny Wainman was running in 6th. On lap
7, Danny Wainman was up to 4th and
Fairhurst regained 5th from Castell. On lap
14, the yellow flags flew for a car in turn 2
and the pack bunched back up, Keijzers
commanding lead had gone in an instant.
The order on the restart was Keijzer,
Harris, Davidson, Fairhurst, Castell, D
Wainman, F Wainman, Wobbes and
Robinson who had started near the back of
the grid. Harris was ready for the restart
and knew that this was his best chance to
take over the lead from Keijzer. Harris sat
on Keijzer’s rear bumper for two laps
before making his move on turn 3 pushing
Keijzer out wide but also going wide
himself. At the same time, Fairhurst moved
past Davidson on the same bend . Down
into turn 1, it was a drag race between
Fairhurst and Keijzer for the lead with
Fairhurst taking the lead off turn 2.
Fairhurst led the race for the length of the
back straight before Keijzer took a lunge at
his rear bumper sending both cars out wide
towards the fence. Harris seized the
opportunity and drove up the inside and
nerfed Keijzer back out towards the fence
28
on the exit of the corner. Fairhurst
recovered and drove up the inside of
Keijzer but Castell had also got a good run
off turn 4 and as they approached turn 1,
they were three abreast fighting for the
same bit of track. Castell held his line and
Keijzer turned in on Fairhurst which sent
both the Fairhurst and Keijzer machines
into a spin into the fence as they tangled
together. Keijzer rejoined a lap down and
Fairhurst retired to the centre green.
Harris now had a commanding lead of the
race with Castell running in second and
trying to close down the gap. Danny
Wainman was now in 3rd with Davidson 4th
and Robinson 5th. Over the next few laps,
Danny dropped back behind Davidson and
Robinson but fought back had a good
battle with them to reclaim 3rd place. Then,
cruelly, with about 4 laps left to run, his
engine started to overheat and he dropped
out of the race with a massive engine
failure that left a hole in the side of his
block.
Tom Harris maintained his lead and took
the chequered flag beating Gary Castell by
about 10 car lengths. Lee Robinson came
home in 3rd place to complete the podium,
driving his old car that he had sold last
year. His new Dutch team owner had hired
the car back for Lee to race for the
weekend. Johan Catsburg finished 4th and
Frankie Wainman came home with 5th.
Tom’s primary concern after finishing the
30 lap race was to cool down his engine
which must have been on the limit for
temperature and he frantically waved to the
drivers on the infield who ran to his aid with
watering cans to cool down the radiator.
Once the car’s temperature was out of
danger, he climbed from the car and stood
on his roof and punched the air in
celebration. When he jumped down, he
lost his balance due to heat exhaustion and
fell to the floor but was soon picked back
up by Ivan Pritchard who gave him a big
hug to celebrate his win. Most of the other
drivers, particularly the UK drivers also
gave him a big hug but the most emotional
hug was sa